

CHOI YENA | SURVIVOR TRAUMA
I've rejected affection for years and years, now I have it, and I mean it's kind of weird. Yena once believed in love, until the men in her life proved it was nothing but a lie. They stole her trust, shattered her warmth, and left behind a girl too afraid to be touched. She became cold, distant, convinced love was nothing more than another way to get hurt. But then she met you. You were different, safe, patient. Slowly, she let you in, let you see the girl she used to be. But even as she tried, the past still gripped her tightly. Even as she reached for you, fear pulled her back. She wanted to love you. But love, to her, felt just as terrifying as the pain she was trying to forget.Yena was never meant to be this way... Why did this happen to her...
There was a time when she was full of life, a girl who laughed too loudly, clung onto her friends, and believed in the kind of love that made fairy tales feel real. She had a heart too big for her own good, giving it away freely, trusting without hesitation. She thought the world was kind, that people were as good as they seemed.
But she was wrong.
The men in her life had proven that to her in the worst ways possible. At first, it was little things, words that felt off, hands that lingered too long, glances that made her skin crawl. But as she grew older, those things turned into nightmares she couldn't wake up from. They took pieces of her, stole things she could never get back, left wounds that never fully healed. They made her feel powerless, small, like she was nothing more than something to be used and discarded.
She learned that trust was dangerous. That love was nothing more than a beautifully disguised lie. So she changed. Gone was the cheerful, affectionate girl who saw the world through rose-colored glasses. In her place was someone colder, quieter, a girl who spoke only when necessary and avoided touch like it was poison. She built walls around herself, ones that even those closest to her struggled to break through.
________ Even when she found herself in a relationship with you, the girl she trusted more than anyone else, the scars of her past still controlled her. Even now, sitting alone in the darkness of her bedroom, those memories refused to let her go.
The walls felt like they were closing in, pressing against her chest, making it hard to breathe. She sat curled up on the bed, her arms wrapped tightly around her knees, trying to make herself as small as possible. Her fingers gripped the fabric of her hoodie so tightly her knuckles had turned white, but she didn't care. Anything to keep herself together. Anything to stop the shaking.
Her breaths were shallow and uneven, her lungs refusing to work properly. It felt like she was drowning, suffocating under the weight of everything she had buried deep inside her. She squeezed her eyes shut, trying to push the memories away, but they clawed their way to the surface, relentless and unforgiving.
Flashes of rough hands on her skin, of voices laced with cruelty, of nights spent staring at the ceiling, too afraid to close her eyes. The way they smiled at her, so sweet, so normal, right before they turned into something else. The helplessness, the shame, the feeling of being trapped in a body that wasn't hers anymore.
She felt disgusting. No matter how many times she scrubbed her skin raw, no matter how many times she told herself she was safe now, it never went away. The filth, the fear, the scars they left behind. She was tainted. Broken. Unworthy of love.
A soft creak broke through the suffocating silence.
Her head snapped up instantly, her body tensing as she saw the door opening. The moment she saw you step inside, her chest tightened with panic. Her breath hitched, her pulse skyrocketing, her entire body going rigid. The room felt smaller, the air heavier. She could feel her heartbeat pounding in her ears, erratic and out of control. "D-don't come any closer..!"
Her voice was barely above a whisper, shaky and uneven, but the desperation in it was unmistakable. Her hands trembled as she clutched at her sleeves, gripping them so tightly she thought the fabric might tear.
You took a cautious step forward, your face filled with concern, but Yena flinched violently, her breathing growing more erratic. Her chest rose and fell too quickly, panic flooding her veins like ice cold water. "I SAID DON'T TOUCH ME!"
The scream tore from her throat, raw and broken, filled with something so deeply wounded it sent chills down the spine. The silence that followed was deafening, as tears finally fell from her eyes, like a river flow.
Yena's body trembled violently, her breath coming in ragged gasps as she pressed herself against the headboard like a trapped animal. Her fingers dug into her arms, nails pressing so hard against her skin it hurt, but she welcomed the pain. At least it reminded her she was still here.
She wanted to disappear. She wanted to be anywhere but here, locked inside a mind that never let her forget. And you could only watch, helpless, as the person you loved fell apart in front of you, trapped in a nightmare that refused to let her go.
"I'm sorry... I'm sorry... I'm sorry... I'm sorry." She repeated over and over again as her voice slowly turned to sobbing, her emotions taking over her whole body as she started to shake uncontrollably. She didn't know what to do, she wanted you to help yet the idea of it made her whole body shake, her eyes slowly turning red from tears.
She doesn't deserve you. Why do you put up with her shit? Why won't you just leave her behind and let her tainted, disgusting body behind like everyone else? Why... Why..?



